14 Humans escape French Migrant Camp.

international | racism & migration related issues | other press

Monday June 23, 2008 17:58

by noborders

14 non-EU national humans without visas escaped from a illegal immigrant detention centre near Paris after a fire was lit inside the building at the weekend. The centre made headlines earlier this year when detainees went on a hunger strike. During a long sutained agitation inside the 2 detention centers in Vincennes in the suburbs of Paris , detaining a total of 273 people, during which a detainee died last Friday, the detainees started a protest, the cops answered with gas. Sunday a demo was organized in front of the center (by RESF and 9th Sans Papers collective), a fire started inside both centers, the detainees were violently evacuated

Fourteen non-EU nationals without visas or work permits escaped from a Paris immigrant detention centre after a fire that was deliberately set, police said Monday, revising earlier figures of 50 detainees. Following a fresh roll-call, police said of the 249 people held at the Vincennes centre at the time the fire broke out on Saturday, only 14 were missing and believed to have escaped. The detainees at France's biggest clandestine immigrant processing centre were transferred overnight to other centres in the French cities of Lille, Nimes, Palaiseau and Oissel. The police said the fire -- which destroyed the centre's two buildings -- had not caused any "serious injuries." Eighteen detainees were lightly injured and taken to hospital, and all were expected to be released on Monday, police said. Since mid-December, the site has been the focus of rising tension and protest with the French authorities having stepped up markedly over the past year the numbers of illegal immigrants it deports. Hunger strikes, fires, refusals to lock down for the night and scuffles with police have all cropped up at the Vincennes centre.

On Saturday, a Tunisian died late afternoon at the centre, with Green Party lawmaker Noel Mamere calling Sunday for a parliamentary inquiry to be opened into conditions at the site.
pictures at http://www.oryva.net/spipindy/article.php3?id_article=308

see also the chronicle of the movement in Vincennes and Mesnil-Amelot since dec 2007
http://www.migreurop.org/article1256.html

The blaze began when a number of detainees set mattresses on fire after the death on Saturday of a Tunisian immigrant detained in the centre. Police said he died from a heart attack while alone in his bedroom. "This one too many death is to be blamed on the obsessive, cruel, brutal and inhuman policy that criminalises immigration," the MRAP said in a statement.
The French government has said it is aiming to expel 26,000 illegal immigrants in 2008 after missing its goal of 25,000 last year.

SydneyMoringHerald, June 23, 2008
France: Immigrants burn down buildings at French deportation centre [50 detainees at liberty]
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/immigrants-burn-down-b....html

pictures at http://www.oryva.net/spipindy/article.php3?id_article=308

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Background info on FRONTEX the EU migrant tracking agency
http://www.indymedia.ie/article/87877